Update on me

I got a library card today and I can use the library internet for on hour at a time! YAY!! Internet!!! I have 18 minutes left on this session so I have to type fast! lol

Monday and Tuesday I went to Fukushima for the orientation...I'm pretty sure I mentioned it. It was ok...not that interesting.  Some of it was really helpful.  Some of it was kinda boring. There was no section for Elemntary teachers and that angered alot of us...quite a few of us are only teaching Elemntary schools.

Then on Wednesday we all took a bus up to Koriyama to get our Alien Registration cards.  The bus ride took about 90 minutes each way and cost about 15 bucks (1500 yen) each way. We were told it could take up to 4 hours to get everything processed so we should leave early.  So we took the 7:15 bus from Iwaki station.  That meant I had to leave home at 6:15 to catch the 6:24 train to Iwaki from Izumi.  I did it! No problem.  So we get to Koriyama Shiakusho stop and we get off the bus and make our way to where we need to go...and there on the corner of the street is the Soka Gakkai Koriyama Chuo Culture Centre! Holy crap!  Soka Gakkai (SGI) is my religion and I had been wondering how to get involved with it in Japan and where I could go for meetings and stuff.   So we went to get our paper work done and it didn:t take 4 hours.  It took....45 minutes!  HAHA! yeah!  It involved filling out paper work and then going to the post office to pay for the paper work and then going back and handing it in and then it was processed in 10 minutes flat!  Crazy!

So we were finished by 10:15am.  So I went to the SGI Culture Centre and explained my situation and they were so eager to help me that they called the Fukushima main centre and that centre sent us a fax with a map and phone number for the Iwaki City Culture Centre.  Then they invited me in for drinks and we talked for about 3 hours! They even fed me lunch (cup ramen) and then we chanted for about 5 minutes.  Everyone wanted to have their picture taken with me.  These were older ladies and had never met anyone from Canada before and we really happy to talk to me (in Japanese ) about Canada and anything else (how I became an SGI member and why I speak Japanese, etc)  Then I was walked to the bus stop where I could get the bus back to Iwaki.  It was an amazing day!

Thursday I went Zahn's house for the day in Ueda and hung out and watched tv.

Friday I didn:t leave the house.  It was nice. I stayed in and had fun.  Or was that Saturday....that was Saturday.  Friday I went to Taira and went to see Toy Story 3 with Sam.

 

Today I walked to the Soka Gakkai Centre here in Taira (Iwaki) and met Saitou san and Honda San.  We talked for a bit and I was told I need an SGI Introduction Card from Canada and that I should contact one of the Ottawa Members to find out more.  They were really nice though and they drove me to the Washington hotel so I could use the internet there.  The learning centre was closed though, so I walked to Latov where the library is and got my library card.  So I think that:s it for now.

I am pretty sure I wrote my address wrong when I gave it to people before coming to Japan so I am going to post the correct version of it here.

The postal code mark at the beginning is a capital T with a horizontal line running parallel to the top of the T.  I can:t make the symbol on the computer...

Lisa Chenier
T 971-8172
Fukushima-Ken, Iwaki-shi
Izumi Tamatsuyu 4Come 6-14
Excel Haitsu B202

Ok. I have 5 minutes left. 

Take care everyone. I'll try to get into Taira tomorrow to get online for a bit. No promises though.
not sure If I can do msn on this computer, but I know I can do facebook!